AN alcoholic smashed a window during a drunken game and later brandished a six foot pole at his neighbour, a court was told.

Stephen Robinson was with friends getting drunk on a bottle of vodka he stole from Waitrose earlier in the day when he decided to have a punching competition.

Whoever smashed the window was the winner, but the glass belonged to Festival Housing and he was charged with criminal damage.

The next week police received calls from concerned residents after they spotted Robinson brandishing a six foot pole in an alleyway.

Unemployed Robinson had drunk nearly three litres of cider and several pints and was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

The 32-year-old appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court and admitted criminal damage, theft and being drunk and disorderly.

In mitigation Edward Gaynor-Smith said: “The background to this is alcohol.

“Over the last 12 months there has been an escalation in offending. His marriage broke up last year, he has five children and he has been denied access to those children.”

Robinson, of Baxters Walk, Malvern, will be sentenced for the offences on Friday, October 23, and was released on conditional bail until then.